Creative Catalyst Newsletter-May 16, 2007
Get ready for those Plein air paint-outs
with Carl Dalio’s Sketching in Perspective, Drawing & Composition for Artists. In this Creative Catalyst art instruction workshop, you learn to draw figures in proportion to their surroundings, get buildings in perspective, organize your composition and so much more.
The world of Blog
A lot goes on here at CCP that is interesting but a bit too informal for a newsletter. Now it will be posted on our Blog… yes, Blog.
If you’ve never read one, it’s sort of fun. You will learn things like; Donna Zagotta signed up to be filmed next year or, with any luck, we are putting together a more industrial looking backdrop for Nicholas Simmons or that Susan Harrison-Tustain wrote an excellent article that will soon be available for download and the list goes on.
Finding our Personal Style
When we first start to paint other artists want to share their creative process and we are eager to learn. There is also a tendency for us to want to emulate them. This may work well if, and it is a big if, our natural style of working is similar to theirs. Otherwise, we may find ourselves in an internal conflict that we find difficult to explain or understand.
As a consequence of filming a variety of talented and experienced artists, I have observed that their approach to art falls along a continuum between those who are “Planners” and those who are “Intiutives” and “fly by the seat of their pants”.
This distinction is not determined by where they paint, i.e.: studio painters vs. Plein air painters but by how they approach the process.
At the “planner’s” end of the continuum is the person who likes everything laid out before starting. The complete drawing is on the paper, every detail is down, and a firm plan is in the artist’s sketchbook. Accurate reference material is important. This seems to me a very ‘head’ way of painting.
At the other end of the spectrum is the artist who applies paint to paper for the pure enjoyment of the process. They are comfortable with random results and they take a lot of chances and say “who not” and “what if” as they paint. Theirs is an emotional approach”¦ it is the “heart” way of painting.
Art is communication, we need both head and heart. Finding that spot on the continuum that best suits us and facilitates our best mode of expression is, I think, the first major step toward achieving our personal style.
Start thinking how to tell a story in art!
Mixed media artist Ann Baldwin has agreed to be the juror of our next art show: Telling Stories in Art. All media! We will begin taking entries May 22.
View the Summer Art Show - Telling Stories in Art
About Ann Baldwin’s DVD Workshop